AUTHORS

feedjit

Biographies

Harold St. John (1876-1957) preferred to have his name pronounced
sin-jun, feeling that the title of "saint" was too superior sounding.
But if anyone wanted an example of saintliness, they could have pointed
in Harold St. John's direction.
His father had a government position as the treasurer of Sarawak, a
state in Malaysia. Later his family would also spend time in Germany
and Belgium. After his mother, Blanche, became a believer, she quickly
applied the principles of Christian child ...

Frederick William Grant (1834-1902) was born into a God-fearing
Anglican home in the Putney district of London, England. Presumably in
his teenage years he became a believer while privately reading the
Bible. He went on to King's College School, in order to be groomed for
a position in the British defense department. But getting those
positions often required inside connections to pull the necessary
strings. Disappointed, at the age of twenty-one, Frederick went to
Canada.
In the 185...

As a youth, Donald was "as proud as a peacock, and as
empty as a drum," and yet he "said" prayers night and morning, for fear
that God would smite him if he didn't. Then one day while Ross was
walking alone among the mountain heather, returning home after visiting
a dying brother, he saw the light of the gospel in John 18:8: "If ye
seek Me, let these go their way."
Ross was born in Rosshire, Scotland in 1823. Twice each day his
God-fearing parents gathered the family to read Scriptu...

Donald Munro (1839-1908) was born in the county Caithness, in the
far north of Scotland. His parents, James and Hannah Munro, held the
"old Puritan theology of the highlands that conversion is a necessity,
the new birth a work of the Spirit in the soul, and the gospel the
means used to effect it." They gathered their children daily to read
from the Gaelic Bible and to pray. In the Disruption of 1843, James
took his family out of the Established Church of Scotland and joined
the Free C...

Charles Stanley (1821-1890), of Rotherham, England, was left an
orphan at the age of four. At seven, he had to earn his living in the
summer by working in the fields. With his energy he could have been a
rascal. But it was his legal guardian who stopped the precocious little
fellow and, with a firm hand on his shoulder, foretold, "Charles, you
will either be a curse or a blessing to mankind."
By the mercy of God, "C.S." became a blessing to thousands.
Converted when fourteen, that yea...

Charles Frederick Hogg (1859-1943) used his outstanding gifts to
raise the standards among the Lord's servants and the church in
general. Born into a godly family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the
year that revival swept the country, he was converted at the age of
nineteen. Soon he was preaching on the streets of that city.
Ever a cautious Bible student, he disparaged a sloppy, nonchalant
approach to holy things. How obvious it was to him that cajoling people
into a lukewarm profe...

August Van Ryn (1890-1982) wrote of his birth, "My arrival in
Haarlem (Netherlands) on May 15, 1890, created no particular sensation
(unless it was one of dismay, for already there were seven Van Ryns
ahead of me--with five more to come after). So my birth was nothing
special to others, though it was to me."
His mother was from Switzerland. On several occasions when J. N.
Darby passed through Switzerland, he visited her parents' home. She
recalled being held on his lap while he ...

Anthony
Norris Groves (1795-1853), "the father of faith missions," deeply
influenced the founders of the China Inland Mission, the North Africa
Mission, and particularly his own brother-in-law, George Muller.
Anthony was the only son in a family of six. His mother
was gentle and talented. His father was an aggressive businessman, who
lost much of his wealth in ill-advised ventures. The Groves were
staunch Anglicans, attending the gloomy old grime-stained Anglican
Church at Fulham in ...

We are often told that right doctrine should have a practical
effect. Henry William Soltau (1805-1875) lived to show us how that is
done. He was the second son of George Soltau, a prosperous merchant of
England's port city Plymouth. His father was a godly Anglican, and an
energetic civic leader. He worked to establish the Plymouth Free
School, where the Bible was taught as an elective, and while a member
of the Town Council, George Soltau opposed the building of the theater.
He died at...

James George Deck (1807-1884) was born at Bury St. Edmunds,
Suffolk, England, where his father, John Deck, was postmaster. Their
godly Huguenot heritage was carried forward in Mrs. Deck's piety. She
"never punished her children without first praying with them." Every
evening she set aside one hour alone with God to pray for her eight
children, and her children's children, and she had the joy of seeing
every one come to Christ.
When only a teenager, James went through officer's training...